B & B Excavation And Land Management Llc

Demolition contractors take down houses, garages, commercial buildings and foundations, then sort and haul what is left. The teardown itself is the fast part; most of the schedule is the paperwork that has to happen first. Gas, electric and water are disconnected and capped at the main, an asbestos survey is completed by a licensed inspector and any friable material is abated before the excavator swings, and the demolition permit is posted. A residential house typically comes down in one to two days with a 30 to 40 ton excavator; hauling and backfilling the hole can take a few more. Selective demolition, such as removing a wing or gutting an interior for a remodel, is priced by labor hours because it is done with hand tools and small machines around what stays.

Driveway contractors build the surface between the road and the house, from a gravel farm lane to a poured concrete approach, and the base under the surface decides how long any of them last. A typical driveway is excavated to remove topsoil, graded with a crown or cross slope so water runs off, and built up with four to eight inches of compacted crushed stone before the top layer goes on. Where the driveway crosses a roadside ditch it needs a culvert sized by the county, and the connection to a public road is regulated by the road authority. Gravel is the least expensive and needs regrading every year or two; asphalt costs more and needs sealing; concrete costs the most up front and lasts longest if the base and joints are done right.

Excavation contractors dig and move earth for foundations, basements, utilities, pools and site cuts. Most residential jobs run on a mini or mid-size excavator paired with a skid steer and a dump truck; larger cuts bring in a dozer or scraper. The price depends less on the size of the hole than on what is in the ground: clay, ledge rock, high groundwater and buried utilities all slow the machine down and change the hauling math. Before the bucket touches dirt the site needs an 811 utility locate, and any trench deeper than five feet needs a protective system under OSHA rules.

Land clearing removes trees, brush, stumps and roots so a parcel can be built on, farmed, fenced or simply seen. The method drives the price. A forestry mulcher grinds standing brush and small trees into chips in a single pass and leaves the ground surface intact; a dozer with a root rake pushes everything into piles for burning or hauling; an excavator with a thumb pulls stumps and stacks logs. Grubbing, which means pulling stumps and roots, is a separate step from clearing and is required anywhere a foundation, driveway or septic field will go. Selective clearing around trees you want to keep takes more hand work and more time than clearing a lot wall to wall.

Septic contractors install and replace the tank, distribution box and drain field that treat wastewater on properties without sewer. Nothing goes in the ground until a soil evaluation or percolation test has been done and the county or state health department has approved a system design; the installer builds to that design and the inspector looks at the open trenches before they are covered. Conventional gravel-and-pipe drain fields are the least expensive where soil drains well, but heavy clay, high water tables and small lots push jobs toward chambers, sand mounds, drip dispersal or an aerobic treatment unit, each with a different price and maintenance schedule. Most states license septic installers separately from general contractors, and many require a pumping and inspection record at property sale.